blending paint on autobody repairs

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plugger340

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Which is a better for blending finishes on today's factory non-metallic finishes: one stage or two stage, or do they have the same finish?
 
This is memike on my wife's computer !!
2 stage, clear coat, if you are repairing a ..... lets say a fender and the damage is close to the front, cover the entire car and paper the fender except the small area to be repaired .
base coat the small area ( lets say 3 coats) then uncover the fender, tape it off and water cuff/sand (2000 wet sand paper) the tape line down smooth where it was taped off for repair, prep/clean the full fender and base coat the front again and just blend back to about half the fender or panel your are blending, next coat back away from the fender an extra 10 inches and fog 2/3'es of the fender aiming away from the back of the fender, when you are happy with coverage clear that fender and hope the color comes close to matching is how I did it back in the day, then un cover the next panel (door in my case) buff and shine the door if all looks good let it cure and wash the car and hope it matches., I did do this a few times but it's 12 or more years ago, the clear coat will help with having the same texture/smooth finnish over the blending area. good luck and I hope a new paint tech will jump in here soon to let us know what he/she would do.
 
Always use what ever is on the car.buff and the micro sand past the blend. paint and sand and buff the blend when finished.
 
Always use what ever is on the car.buff and the micro sand past the blend paint and sand and buff the blend when finished.

Thank you Oldmanmopar, I forgot about asking or thinking what was on the car and prepping :D
 
If you are doing a blend on base/clear, you should clear the entire panel that the repair was done on.

So if the repair is on the front of a fender, you will be blending the base from the repair area into the undamaged area. Then you will be clearing the entire fender.

You need about 18ish inched to do a proper and invisible blend so if the repair area is say..... towards the rear of the fender, about 10" from the door, you will be prepping, blending and clearing the entire fender and door.

Now sometimes it really isn't practical to carry your clear to a panel edge, for example:

If you were doing a blend in the rear quarter of something like a Dart, where is the panel edge that you would stop at?

Hint, it's on the other side of the car. To correctly blend the rear quarter on something like a 70 Dart, you would need to clear both rear quarters and up over the roof.

Not that most people would do that.....

You need to remember that the clear provides UV protection not only to the base but to itself. So if you blend out your clear within a panel and polish, that polished, clear edge is thin and will fail in a few years depending on it's exposure to sunlight.

#1 rule in blending....... Always run your clear to where the sun don't shine.
 
If you are doing a blend on base/clear, you should clear the entire panel that the repair was done on.

So if the repair is on the front of a fender, you will be blending the base from the repair area into the undamaged area. Then you will be clearing the entire fender.

You need about 18ish inched to do a proper and invisible blend so if the repair area is say..... towards the rear of the fender, about 10" from the door, you will be prepping, blending and clearing the entire fender and door.

Now sometimes it really isn't practical to carry your clear to a panel edge, for example:

If you were doing a blend in the rear quarter of something like a Dart, where is the panel edge that you would stop at?

Hint, it's on the other side of the car. To correctly blend the rear quarter on something like a 70 Dart, you would need to clear both rear quarters and up over the roof.

Not that most people would do that.....

You need to remember that the clear provides UV protection not only to the base but to itself. So if you blend out your clear within a panel and polish, that polished, clear edge is thin and will fail in a few years depending on it's exposure to sunlight.

#1 rule in blending....... Always run your clear to where the sun don't shine.

Base/clear is a no brainer when following the above. Blending is an art and is very tough to do so that it is invisible and will STAY that way.
 
If you have the room, try to blend on an angle as you eye natually looks for a sudden stop like at a door line etc. For exapmple, if I was blend on a door, I would angle from the base of a side view mirror or door handle. Andrew.
 
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